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Luba (subsequently Jinja) gauge, near the Ripon Falls, represents Lake Victoria.
Wadelai gauge (60 km. below Lake Albert) represents Lake Albert.
The shores of Lake Albert are generally steep and barren, though in places they are shelving and covered with papyrus, notably at the inlets of the Semliki river and the Victoria Nile. The Lake is fairly deep and admirably suited for a reservoir. At the outlet of the lake enormous quantities of pistea weeds, especially in high floods, enter the Albert Nile. The passage of these weeds through the future regulator of Lake Albert will be an exceedingly interesting engineering problem.
The principal feeders of the lake are:—
On the north, the Victoria Nile.
On the east, the Waiga, the Wakki, the Hoima, the Wahamba, the Horo, the Ngusi and Msisi, discharging between them under 20 cubic metres per second in the dry season, though good streams in flood.
On the south, the Semliki; and no streams worth mentioning on the west.
13. The Albert Nile.
—The Albert Nile, or the Bahr-el-Gebel, has a length of 1280 kilometres from Lake Albert to the mouth of the Sobat river. For 218 kilometres, past Wadelai to Dufile, it has a broad stream with a sluggish current as a rule, and covered with islands and papyrus marshes. This reach of the Nile is navigable. The fall here must be very little, and it may be considered as 8 metres. In high floods enormous quantities of pistea weeds float down this reach of the Nile. Papyrus and ambatch are very common along the shores and on the islands.
At Dufile begin the Fola rapids followed by numerous cataracts up to Fort Berkeley. In this reach of 155 kilometres the river falls 223 metres. Sir William Garstin states that some of the falls have a width of only 12 metres. The depth must be extraordinary, while the velocity is terrific. The green water of the upper reaches is purified in its passage through these cataracts. The rock is granite. If the regulator for Lake Albert were constructed near Dufile, it should contemplate development of electricity for working a railway along these 155 kilometres.